been wattching this from the sidelines and decided to jump in..call sign no, interest in ham radio yes. taken the test no, but with people like this not so sure..Name is Tom and i live in MS

i took him up on his offer and called him, found and asked frank questions, got honest (I believe) anawers.. he made some valid points, some i disagree with but most i do, MARS is looking for a identity since Marine Corps left and very little Navy Usage.Actually sounded sad about the changes

here is the kicker, I WAS AT A EOC IN MS, MARS SURE WAS NOT THERE!!!, I spent days and days watching ham radio work, sure did not see or hear MARS.. you all were just not there. but did hear races, and ares and the hf nets such as Maritime Net. but sure did not hear any MARS nets jumping in and providing a comm link.. because radio was the only link, no power, no phone lines standing, no cell phones because no cell phone towers left standing.

I also looked at that web page and found a lot of information about MARS from yrs past and recent years including gulf war of 91.. surprising that the call sign N0IRA goes way way back, none of yours do..

so you can all pontificate about this and that and slap each other on the back. you can give each other high fives about 'serving those who serve' can continue to INSULT withoug backing anything up.. but i tend to believe the man i talked to....

will i ever post here again, doubt it, because i do not see a organization that has any merit

To be fair, MARS members do not self activate. they have to be requested by a recognised authority such as a state or local gov. If MARS was not requested don't be surprised if they don't show up.

Logged

If you have a clumsy child, you make them wear a helmet. If you have death prone children, you keep a few clones of them in your lab.

While am not a MARS member or have any interest in becoming one I would add to a previous post that the need for MARS will always be their even if the government does not realize it. As it stands now 95% of our communication is handled by fiber optic cables and the rest via satellite. In any serious War these two items would become major targets and Fiber optics would certainly be the first to go. Satellite cannot pick up the extra load and MARS would become needed again in a big way. If satellites later come under attack then MARS might be the only way.

Logged

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” (Mark Twain)

N0SYA, You forget that MARS is also a Federal Entity and part of the Military, you can request all you want but if its not a Federal Disaster with Military envolvment you probably wont see them activated. I'm not sure if activated means anything as they really dont deploy to anything, they just run NETS from their home QTH.

KD8MJR, Do you really think the military has no back up radio systems, or satellites that the public cannot use. I believe our Military is much more prepared than a bunch of civilian volunteers using off the shelf HAM gear. MARS was nothing more than a Morale Support function within the Military. Why are they trying to become a Governemnet run ARES. Dont get me wrong I have no use for ARES either ...

Hello all. This is an interesting thread if you sort out the BS from both extremes. I was very active in MARS for several years, and was the virtual beaming faced new guy that thoroughly enjoyed the structure and comradery offered by MARS. Sorry if this gets long, but I think it is important you gain all perspectives. I did 21 years in the Marines (71-92) and saw MARS do wonderful stuff for the Marines, to include shipboard MARS.After retiring I got back into Ham Radio after a 20 year absence. I jumped in with both feet and eventually joined MARS to give something back. After the initial learning curve and great encouragement from the other folks, I was regularly running traffic nets and doing COMMO via PACTOR daily and distributing to the net by AMTOR. At this time digital was the up and coming mode due to noise rejection offered by the ARQ modes. Our net functioned primarily via SSB on 80M and I still get chills from the summer months trying to work 3-400 miles away. I was the youngster of the group, and tried to incorporate training on different digital modes. Folks were less than enthusiastic, and the "new fangled tech syndrome set in." For me the resistance to change was the number one reason my interest waned.Don't get me wrong, while frustrated with several aspects of MARS, I continued to enjoy the comradery between the folks. This was the period in which MARS seemed to be wondering through the wilderness. I am sure there have been a lot of good changes of the past 3 years or so that I have been out of MARS. I often invited other Ham friends into the shack so they could hear how a real directed net operated compared to their ARES push and talk 2-M sessions. Pride is a good word.I am rambling now, so I will shut up, but I guess my point is that the quality and professionalism of MARS operators will always rise above the bureaucracy and chaos often associated with HF radio communication. No one is in it for the pay (well a few maybe). As with any technology, change will come and it needs to be embraced.Semper Fi to all, Hank WB4ROA/NNN0BBX

I work for the Army and is an Army MARS member. The last tsunami warning for Hawaii came last year, believe it was either November or December. There was an earthquake off British Columbia Canada and it generated a tsunami. No MARS nets, only local Civil Defense, State Civil Defense and RACES nets. I participated for a short time. I hear MARS can't statrt a net until it gets the ok from MARS HQ which is in Yuma Arizona. They were fast asleep so probably didn't care. DoD is on the brink of major financial cutbacks and the first thing to go will be the MARS program.

I see a common thread on most of the posts about MARS not being present at local events. As a current AF MARS member, we have no vhf activity in my location, A major city but only 3 members. Most of our members are spread out, and membership has thinned in the past 20 years. However MARS still has a very good point to point long haul HF capability. We have very limited VHF activity. Thats where I see most of the emphasis going. Some locations may have some vhf simplex activity, and there are a few locations that have enough members to contribute to keeping a repeater going.

Quite a statement from someone who lists neither full name nor call sign and who knows absolutely nothing about me and the others who frequent this forum or our qualifications.

What MARS qualifications and/or experience do YOU have?

Lon

I don't have any qualification in this area either for that matter, but why not put the bazooka everyone is aiming at the poor guy down and listen to what he might be saying for two seconds. After all, everyone is entitled to express an opinion right Lon?

here is the kicker, I WAS AT A EOC IN MS, MARS SURE WAS NOT THERE!!!, I spent days and days watching ham radio work, sure did not see or hear MARS.. you all were just not there. but did hear races, and ares and the hf nets such as Maritime Net. but sure did not hear any MARS nets jumping in and providing a comm link.. because radio was the only link, no power, no phone lines standing, no cell phones because no cell phone towers left standing.

And you probably never will see or hear any MARS ops handling routine message traffic in these cases unless specifically directed. Our mission has changed a bit.

I also looked at that web page and found a lot of information about MARS from yrs past and recent years including gulf war of 91.. surprising that the call sign N0IRA goes way way back, none of yours do..

so you can all pontificate about this and that and slap each other on the back. you can give each other high fives about 'serving those who serve' can continue to INSULT withoug backing anything up.. but i tend to believe the man i talked to....

will i ever post here again, doubt it, because i do not see a organization that has any merit

Please do not let the door slap you in the posterior on your way out! unlicensed posters are not taken seriously anyway.

Will you be missed for very long (or at all)? To get an idea of how long we will think about your departure fill a glass of water and insert your finger. Now pull it out and see how long it takes for the hole to fill with water. We will mourn your departure for approximately 1/1000th of the time period. Sayonara!

Doubtful. MARS costs the government practically nothing. This is especially true of Navy and Marine Corps MARS. Even for Army MARS with its full-time contractor staff, I doubt they are in any risk of getting axed.

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